Beech Tree News Network

One day at work, one of our co-op guys made a questionable observation about one of our customers, who happened to come from a different ethnic background than our guy did.  “I need to take you to Galveston, Texas, for some diversity training,” I said.

Galveston, Texas, is a port town, and as such, people from all over the world pass through that little area.  Located southeast of Houston, the town is just a bit smaller than Bowling Green.  I lived there for a couple of years while my youngest daughter was finishing her degree at Texas A&M University.  I worked at a Hastings Entertainment Center with people from several ethnic and religious backgrounds.  

My co-workers were Hispanic, French-Creole, African American and German.  They were Catholic, Baptist, Jehovah’s Witness, Buddhist and Atheist.  They were single, married, divorced and gay.  One of the cashiers was on meds for schizophrenia.  Everybody was given a chance.  That’s what I remember about that town the most.

Bernard Gambrell worked as a GSM (guest service manager).  He was the son of a Baptist minister.  One night, I went on a rant about a couple of customers who had tried to sell pornographic books to the book department (Hastings bought used books, but, to this particular couple’s disappointment, not pornography).  They then hastened to the religious section of my book department to pick out a Bible.  That just screamed hypocrisy at me, and I said so to Bernard.

Bernard listened patiently then said with a smile, “Now, Ms. Cheryl, you know what the Bible says about not judging people.”

Bernard was always like that, and everybody loved him for it.  He passed away last year.  He wasn’t quite forty years old.  The doctors said he had an enlarged heart.  I could have told them that.

On the other side of the coin was my friend, Robert Gonzales.  He was a Hispanic man who had lived in Texas all his life.  Many of the Hispanic people on Galveston Island had come from an area called simply “The Valley,” just across the border from Mexico.  Robert was a jeweler and one of my favorite customers.  He knew where all the best buys in Galveston were.  On one of our off days, my co-worker, Jeanne, and I decided to get Robert to take us boot shopping.  He took us to local consignment and pawn shops.  When he passed a rather large pawn shop without stopping, I brought it to his attention.

“Robert, you just passed one,” I said.

“You don’t want to go there, Ms. Cheryl,” he said, “Mexicans own that one.”

“Robert, don’t you have the same background?” I asked.

“No,” he said with a smile, “I’m Hispanic.”  (Prejudice is alive and well everywhere, even in a town as diverse as Galveston.) 

I read something recently that reminded me how important it is to keep an open mind.  In Detective Joe Kenda’s book, I WILL FIND YOU, Joe tells the story of how one night he had to tell a family that their teenage son was dead.  The Colorado police department kept a group of ministers and priests on call in the event that they had to deliver bad news to a family.   They called the group the God Squad.   The family of the dead teenage boy was Catholic.  The teenager had been killed late at night, and when Joe called the Catholic diocese, the priest told Joe that they didn’t go out at night.  He would have to wait till morning.  Joe couldn’t wait until the morning, so he called his rabbi friend from the local Jewish temple and explained about the no-visits-after-dark policy of the local Catholic diocese.

When Joe called, the rabbi told him to pick him up and he would wing it.  

“The rabbi…delivered a full round on the rosary in perfect Catholic,” Joe said, “He stepped up and had the entire family on their knees praying in front of a Madonna statue in the living room.”

On the way to take his Jewish friend home, Joe told him how impressed he was with his priest impersonation.

“I keep up with the competition,” the rabbi said.

Diversity training is important.  It might just help you keep up with the competition.